Groundswell NW December Newsletter

Groundswell NW was pretty busy behind the scenes this past month. One huge accomplishment was to launch our new website! This undertaking started almost a year ago and was spearheaded by GNW board member, Jan Satterthwaite. We redesigned our site to better share our message, show off our accomplishments, and connect you better with our services and help you engage better with our community. Whether you're new to Groundswell NW or have been a faithful supporter for many years, we encourage to take a test drive and help us get the word out to the larger community of parks, open space and habitat stewards!

In December and January, we are also encouraging all of you parks and open space stewards to participate in one of Seattle Parks and Recreation 2017 Development Plan Citywide meetings. This is a 6-year plan that documents and describes the Seattle Parks and Recreation's (SPR) facilities and lands, looks at Seattle's changing demographics and lays out a vision of the future. Our new events calendar has ALL of these meetings and locations listed. Try out the new feature to automatically add the event to your calendar! Just hover over the event in the calendar to view a summary, click on the icon to view the details of the event and then click on +ical or +gcal to export a link to add to your personal calendar. 

Dawn Hemminger
Groundswell NW President

Groundswell NW November Newsletter

We had a great time last month cleaning up the east side of the Troll's Knoll. We cleared away tons of blackberries, cleared away the path going up the hill and mulched like crazy. Thank-you SDOT for bringing out your crew and doing some major mowing and giving us guidance on what to do. The donuts, pizza and water kept us fueled and the rain stayed away until the end of the event. Check out the pics here and come out and join the Troll's Knoll gang for more events in the near future!

If you missed out on the fun at Troll's Knoll last month, you have 2 more opportunities to care for NW green spaces this November. Join us Saturday November 12 at Ballard Corners Park and again on Sunday November 13 at Sunset Hill Shilshole Gateway. We'll see you there rain or shine!

Groundswell NW October Newsletter

When you think of iconic spots to visit in Seattle, The Fremont Troll will be near the top of your list. This is why it was such an honor for Groundswell NW to become the fiscal sponsor for the Friend’s of the Troll’s Knoll who had a great idea back in 2009 to create a park and p-patch along the east and west sides of the Troll. With Kimberly Scrivner in the lead organizing her neighbors, the west side of the park received $685,000 in 2011 through the Seattle Parks and Green Spaces Levy and opened to the public May of this year. If you’re standing facing the Troll, walk along the sidewalk to your left and follow the windy path up the hill along a green space to a bench with a view and community P-Patch at the top.

Looking down from atop the Troll's Knoll Park

With ½ of their vision under wraps, Friends of the Troll’s Knoll are still on a roll and are concentrating their efforts now on the east side with a new neighbor in the lead, Kaley Bender. Kaley brought her neighbors together for a block party in August with the help of a Department of Neighborhood’s Small Sparks grant. We’re also pleased to announce that Friends of the Troll’s Knoll is our most recent recipient of a $450 microgrant from Groundswell NW! These funds will provide key resources for their inaugural clean up day October 8th. SDOT will be helping by providing labor to pull out blackberry bushes, do some landscape cleanup and mulching. There will also be future community events for this site in the coming year, thanks to Tableau Software who just awarded $5,300 to support these events! Congrats to Friends of the Troll's Knoll, thank-you Tableau for supporting this great community project and thank-you to grass-roots community organizers like Kimberly and Kaley who continue to inspire us to create, activate and care for parks, open space and habitat!

Be sure to hover over the dates in the calendar below or click here to view upcoming events on our website!